


December 25th

by orphan_account



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Christmas Morning, M/M, Oneshot, Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 23:13:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9040211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Phil Skype calls Dan on Christmas morning 2016 and they banter and reflect on the past year.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! I wanted to take a quick break from Gravity Phalls and write this since it's now been a year since I started watching Dan and Phil, and I still can't believe how much these two have made me smile. This was written in bits and pieces throughout December but I just now put it all together.
> 
> This is a complete work of fiction. I do not claim to know Dan and Phil or claim that Phan is "real", this is just me attempting to characterize them.
> 
> Warnings: Dan says "fuck" once (I mean come on, it's Dan), and "Jesus" as a swear word twice. Also, a few instances of "god" like "oh my god", "oh god", etc.

On December 25th, it was that weird little Skype jingle that served as Dan’s alarm clock. Indescribable in noise but still such a consistent tune, Dan awoke with a start and knew exactly who was calling. 

He fumbled for his laptop, the walls of his room growing clearer as he scooted to a half-sitting position in his bed. He yawned, blinking and rubbing his eyes. The bedside drawer was in the same position as his room back in London, and the same quick reach to his left and a few quick taps for his password, committed to muscle memory, quieted the incessant jingle from his speakers. 

Dan never really knew how to initiate conversation over Skype, so he just managed a smile and wave, trying not to grimace at his incredible bedhead. 

“HELLOOOO!” Phil sang, waving at Dan from the other side of the screen. 

Dan grinned. “How early did you get up this year?” 

“Quarter to eleven, actually. Philly is tiiiiired,” Phil replied, doing an exaggerated yawn. 

“Quarter to— whoa, it’s already half eleven!” Dan cried, glancing at the time in the corner of his laptop. “Jesus. Well, I went to bed at like, two in the morning.” 

“I bet you were _so_ excited, staying up all night like that,” Phil replied wryly. 

“Shut up,” Dan jabbed with a grin. “All our baking videos are at three in the morning anyway.” 

Phil suddenly laughed. “It was pretty funny actually, last night. I was so stupidly excited, I couldn’t sleep and I _swore_ I heard some sort of animal’s mating call? I’m not even kidding!” 

Despite himself, Dan sputtered out a laugh. “What?! How does that even happen?” 

Phil cupped a hand over his mouth, speaking between fits of laughter. “And I— I was like, in this mixture of excitement and delirium, and I thought, ‘Oh god, that must be the reindeer!’ But like, I couldn’t move, y’know? I was so tired and confused, it was the weirdest thing ever!” 

They both guffawed for a good few seconds, Phil just giggling and Dan wheezing, “Oh Jesus, I can’t laugh this hard this early in the morning! My parents must be so confused right now!” 

“You should’ve seen my parents’ faces when I told them I’d heard that last night!” Phil laughed. He scooted over on his bed, letting Dan see a certain pink plushie behind him. 

“Whoawhoawhoawaitaminutewaitaminute— is that your baby blobfish behind you?” Dan asked. 

Phil laughed and replied, “Yep, he’s keeping me company.” He reached behind him and gave the plushie a squeeze. 

Dan huffed a sigh as he tugged the tangled earbuds from his suitcase on the floor. He’d lived out of a suitcase for nearly half of 2016, but the tangles never ceased to aggravate him. 

“Of course. Fuckin’ knots,” He muttered. 

Phil’s nose scrunched up as he frowned. “Hey, no bad language on Christmas,” he chastised. 

Dan chuckled. “Oh yeah? Since when?” 

“Since right now. By the decree of— the Christmas… Corporation.” 

“The Christmas _Corporation_?” Dan asked incredulously. 

“Yeah, no bad language.” Phil jabbed, and pointed at him. “Shame!” 

“Sorry,” Dan replied, sounding not at all sorry. 

Dan fiddled with the volume while Phil continued, letting “New Born” play quietly enough so Phil could speak without having to raise his voice. 

Dan’s shoulders felt cold without the duvet, a thinner, shorter white one with rumpled edges and a stitched pattern. It was the same one that’d stayed in his room since before he’d even started uni. His bedroom still had the same metal truckle bed and coffee-brown walls, the wooden dresser with the beat-up television. But god, had he changed since. 

“Hey, you could at least remove your earbuds. Beyonce can wait, thank you,” Phil said, shaking Dan from his thoughts. 

“Says you. I was listening to Muse.” 

“Oh wow, that’s festive. Great choice.” 

“Is that a note of sarcasm I detect? God, I’ve corrupted you permanently.” 

“We live in a changed world, Dan. A post baking video world.” 

“Hashtag 2017 rebranding,” Dan replied, and Phil grinned in response. 

Dan paused before continuing with, “I dunno, I guess I didn’t feel super festive this year. I think it was the stress.” 

Phil’s brow creased as his voice dropped to a concerned murmur, the tone that always made Dan’s shoulders relax and his heart swell with gratitude, just a little bit. 

“Oh,” Phil replied. “You’re okay though, right?” 

“Nononono, it’s nothing. It’s good stress.” 

“Good stress?” Phil repeated, but a smile was returning to his lips. 

Dan’s smile grew wider. “Yeah, seriously. Gamingmas was like, I don’t even know, stressful in a good way. I thought it was a great idea to brighten up the month a little. I think that kinda made Christmas itself like, a lesser priority? I just wasn’t thinking about it much.” 

“Yeah,” Phil responded, nodding lightly. 

“It’s okay. I’m fine. That was really sweet of you, Phil,” Dan added, and he knew that Phil’s grin sufficed as a “thank you”. 

Phil smoothened his duvet and the video lagged slightly before he asked, “What album?” 

“What?” 

“What album were you listeni—” 

“Oh. Er, Origin of Symmetry.” 

“Oh, neat. Haven’t listened to Muse in awhile, actually. Y’know ‘New Born’ is my favorite song?” 

“Yeah, you never let me forget that,” Dan jabbed with a smirk. 

Phil ignored it and added, “I think you said Citizen Erased was yours. If you _had_ to pick, that is.” 

“Yeah. It’s a good tune.” 

“It’s lit.” 

“Phil— oh my— I swear to god—” 

“Lit.” 

“I wanna reach through the screen and murder you.” 

Phil’s laughter was the only response. 

After a moment, Phil added, “I think it was good stress for me, too. Especially the tour.” He exhaled quietly. “The tour and song, DAPGO, the awards, the YouTube Red films… I think you should be proud of yourself this year.” 

Dan didn’t try to hide his smile in the slightest. 

“Give yourself some credit, Phil,” Dan finally responded. “You finally got your recognition at the Boncas, right?” 

“I get recognition everyday from all of our subscribers. Honestly, I still find it incredible that I can make three million people on the internet smile for a living.” 

“You’re gonna hit four— no, five million subs in 2017, Phil. I’ll see to it.” 

Phil grinned quizzically. “How’re you gonna do that?” 

“I’ll— I’ll threaten to… throw my laptop out the window. Or something.” Dan shrugged with a grin. He twirled the loose thread on his blanket before going on. 

“But the thing about making people smile for a living,” Dan continued. “I was— I was thinking about that, actually. Being in my room every Christmas, it looks the same, but my life changes more and more. I remember October 2009, Phil. It was, it was just supposed to be a hobby. It’s…” 

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Phil mused. “But I meant what I said at the Boncas. I know for certain that Phil of ten years ago would never in a million billion trillion years think that I could win an award for— all of this.” 

“All of this,” Dan repeated, a soft smile playing on his lips. 

“We could talk about it for another decade, but I don’t think I could ever wrap my head around it,” Phil added. 

“Yeah. Me neither,” Dan replied. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then exclaimed, “God, we filmed your ‘Interactive Christmas Adventure’ _seven years ago_. Those fricking annotations.” 

“Oh my god, yes,” Phil laughed. “But that was fun, in a silly kind of way. You remember all that snow?” 

Dan nodded and asked, “How was your Christmas Eve? This year, I mean.” 

Phil smiled. “Pretty good. I ate a really horrific amount of food.” 

“Sounds pretty good to me,” Dan commented. “I was happy with the Sims video too.” 

“Yeah, I was just glad the Undertale video uploaded without crashing. Had we ever done a video that long?” 

“Oh man, I definitely would’ve remembered if we did. But that was a really good game.” 

“Yeah.” 

Then there was a long, drawn-out silence. Dan shuffled in his bed and drew up the covers, and Phil drummed his fingers on his laptop, thinking to himself. 

“Oh, just a sec,” Dan interrupted, then removed an earbud and called, “Yeah, Mum? What is it?” 

Turning back to Phil, he added, “Hang on. You’re going on a trip.” 

Phil’s brow furrowed. “That sounded kinda wrong.” 

“You make everything sound wrong, Phil,” Dan replied, picking up his laptop and ambling out of his room into the upstairs hallway. 

On Dan’s laptop screen, Phil craned his neck in anticipation. “Ooh, I can smell the mince pies from here!” 

“Who eats _mince pies_ for breakfast?” Dan asked, as his mother repeated herself. 

“I bet you would if you lived on the edge,” Phil jabbed with a grin. 

“Alright, I’ll be down in a sec. Yeah, I was. To Phil,” Dan responded, speaking to his mother. Then he turned back to Phil. 

“Ugh, we’ve already been Skyping for forty minutes. I blame you entirely, Phil.” 

“What? I can sign off right now!” 

Dan shook his head in mock shame. “Eating into my quality family time, I swear.” 

“I still think you’d eat mince pies for breakfast if you lived on the edge. I bet they wouldn’t be that bad.” 

“Hm, maybe. Aaaaanyway,” Dan hummed, walking back into his room and picking up his phone. “Mum wants me to go eat breakfast, so I should probs get goin’.” 

Phil gave a slightly melancholy smile. “Alright.” 

“I’m gonna enjoy my cereal so much without worrying about _someone_ eating it beforehand.” 

“ _Alright._ Just go and have your cereal,” Phil said in mock exasperation, eliciting a grin from Dan. 

“Oh, and give me a call at like dinnertime. I wanna hear about your Christmas haul!” 

Phil nodded. “Will do. Now go eat breakfast without me!” he added with a little pout. 

“Merry Christmas, Phil.” 

“You too!” 

“I— wow, you can’t even say the words?” 

“You Christmas shaming me, Dan?” 

“Yep. I find your holiday habits appalling.” 

“Alright, _Merry Christmas_ , Dan.” 

Dan let out a light laugh, pausing to just smile at Phil. Then he waved, the same way he’d greeted him. 

“Bye, Phil.” 

Dan left out a “I miss you”. He left out a “I love you.” Not because he was too afraid to say them, but now, at this point in his life, it no longer needed to be said. Thousands of words flitted between them with each smile and wave, and thousands more were nestled in every sentence exchanged between them. And within Dan’s simple “Bye, Phil,” he knew Phil could read an entire waffly essay in the way Dan’s eyes crinkled at the edges, glowing with a genuine smile. 

“See ya later, Dan.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! By the way, I highly recommend the actual 2009 "Interactive Christmas Adventure" on YouTube, it's a nostalgia fest of Christmas joy!


End file.
